DNS - May The Force Be With You

Think of DNS as "The Force," recommends a recent white paper produced by the Yankee Group (News - Alert). Not like there are a bunch of Star Wars fanatics working there or anything, that would be highly unusual for an IT operation.

So why is DNS like The Force? According to the paper, "It unifies all people and devices connected via the Internet, and its pervasiveness can be used for good or evil."

Companies must be able to use DNS while protecting their Web assets from security breaches, and the paper discusses this. Although enterprises may want control over this infrastructure, "such total control is not possible," it finds.

It also concludes that the dissolving of corporate and network boundaries, the growth of and increasing reliance on e-commerce, the proliferation of cloud computing solutions and the gradual penetration of IPv6 "all mean that the enterprise no longer knows where its users, its data or its customers are physically located on the network at any given time."

Yet enterprises must still, however, be able to secure and guarantee the performance of their DNS infrastructure over the patchwork of networks, technologies and access devices that characterize the Internet.

It's enough to make a Wookie cry. The paper gives a few recommendations, highlighted here:

A secure, robust, flexible and continuously updated DNS infrastructure is critical to any enterprise -- regardless of size -- that uses the Internet, whether it is for e-mail or e-commerce.

Examine how your customer, partners and employees connect to your company. How geographically distributed are they, and in how many countries?

Examine the importance of the Internet to your enterprise now and its potential importance in three years. Do you use it only for e-mail, or do you use it for service, for support, as a critical communication tool or as a revenue stream?

Take a hard look at the way you currently manage DNS. How much does it cost you per year; how rapidly are changes implemented; how frequently is it down; how vulnerable is it to a security breach, particularly an amplification or cache poisoning attack?

Investigate a managed DNS service. Enterprises that are not satisfied with the way their DNS is managed today or that view the Internet and their Web presence as critical to their company's survival should definitely consider a managed DNS solution.

Use the Managed DNS Service Bill of Rights. Use the guidelines detailed in Section V of this report to evaluate services and determine which service meets the needs of your enterprise.

Respect DNS - and may the force be with you.